The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1887-08-04
TROPHIES OF THE WAR.
"A GLANCE AT CAPTURED CoNFEDER-
ATE FLAGS AT WASHINGTON.

Ale EIIAGS AT WASHINGTON
The Story Told by These nIuto EmbIemi
OF Lost CausC--Banners of silk and
Banners of Tattors-- How the Flags are
Kept In the War Department..
Nettcr to the New York WORLDLY
WASHINGTON, July 9.-Yesterelay in
walking through the immense granite
pile Of the State, War and Navy Depart
ments, L was taken with the curiosity to
see the battle flags which have set tho
country in an uproar. Turning to the
right from tho main corridor Of tho
building on the second floor, L entered
the commodious apartments of tho Ad-
jutant Generals Office, and found myself
confronting at a corner desk in one Of
the rooms, rather staturcd nun, Of
well-fed form and placid faco, with his
coat off like an ordinary clork, bending
to his work, alternately mopping the
heat from his forehead and signing Or
ders. This individual looked as little as
possible Like kindling the memories of @
SICuU VI DlO WOCIu on
flame in any quarter. The heat Of the
All the same, 1t was General Drum,
Adiutant General of the United States
Army, whose autograph on q slip of
paper addressed to Mr.. Cleveland II few
weeks ago, and recommended the Gistri-
button over the country of a variety of
tattered bunting in the garret OF the
War Ohico, set the country by the ears
and is likely to play considerable role
IN coming campaign for an American
President. l had been told that Adju-
tant General Drum was extremely sensi-
tive to the inquiries Of visitors concern
ing this same bunting. L was agrceably
surprised, therefore, on informing this
gentleman that [ had witnessed III the
old days of tho rebellion tho spectacle of
the arrival Of many Of these flags III the
War Department, fresh from the battle
folds on which they were captured, and
OF my wish to again inspect them, at be-
ing met with the blandcst of smilos and
promptly put in charge Of an attendant
with instructions to aid my mission.
Carried by an elevator five stories up,
under the roof Of tho War Departments,
almost burning in this Washington cum
mer weather, tho key being turned by
my guide in the door of an attic room, /
stood an instant later in little space
hardly more than ten feet square, nearly
within reaching distance OH oil sides Of
these battered memontos OF the war, the
very mention of which has set afirc the
hearts OF sixty millions of pcoplc--a few
rags saturated with the explosive wash
of patriotism But tho first thought on
seeing them in this pcnt up space Of
attic is of the smallncss of
the size of the effect. T
about the room appear q,
"A handful Mt the most, but y.p.-
rately thcro ere $50 in all, over five hum
dred of them being Confederate and the
remainder Federal flags recaptured from
their captors. One half Of the entire
numbor are attached to their slaves as
as they were originally taken, the flags
Of the two sections being stacked in
separate masses against two sides of the
room, facing the other half folded and
protruding from pigeon holes on the op-
spositc walls. The sight of the stars and
stripes keeps always familiar. But the
first look at the dark red heap of the
banners of rebellion, piled here against
the side of the attic, blots ont twenty
five years from the memory and brings
back as If it were yesterday, the red years
when they waved Mt the head of their
regiments. There is hardly flag among
them oil that has not its history record
cd in the book in tho hands Of tho keep
er Of tho room. Nearly all are riddled
with bullets, and many, like those car
ried through such battles as the Wilder
ness and the second Bull Run, were shot
literally into tatters and almost un-
recognizable sprays Of rag.
The contrast in the appearance Of the
Southern and Union standards is sienf-
can't of the history Of tho war. The lat
ter are rugged on clean polished poles
and are of firm, rich material, many of
them of silk, showing IN abundance in
the North of the fabrics of which they
continued to be made. The majority OF
the Confederate flags are of the wretch
est shoddy bunting, miserable in color,
as in substance, while great numbers of
them arc mounted on rude, EMBARKED
gads and saplings, hastily cut from tho
woods on the march-recalling the
blockade and the pinching days when
war had fallen on q section without
manufactures, and the intense, desperate
purpose of o people forgot seomliness
and absorbed every thought but the win
ming of their fights.
many ol the uaBS lying tOlued IN the
boxes and taken out to be exhibited by
the guardian Of the room recall still
moro vividly the narrow straits of rebel
lion on its last legs, being literally indie
pendent of discrimination in color and
made of patches from womon's dresses
and underskirts Of nearly every hue and
material-pitiful reminders of tho Spar
tan poverty and courage that were still
TO fail of their end. There arc some ex.
eeptions, however, in this storeroom of
battle trophies, to these memcntos of
the Sterner days of tho war for the
south. The attendant drew from the
pigeon holes on the walls and unfolded
for my inspection three or four magIiifi-
cent banners of heavy silk, fringed with
tasscls Of gold and ornamonted with
pictures in oil and rich embroiderinos on
o field of blue. These flags represent
the early and halcyon dgys of tho lost
Cause, when they were made by Ioooi
associations Of ladies and presented , to
the military organizations which carried
them. One of those flags belonG d to
the ApalaChicola Guard, whose name ia
- 81 -, La